The Color of Winter is in the Imagination

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"The color of springtime is in the flowers; the color of winter is in the imagination." – Terri Guillemets

Be a Global Leader, Not Just a Boss

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Global small business owners must keep improving and try to be a global leader rather than a boss to ensure employees feel comfortable opening up to you about the challenges they are facing at work. This allows you to build deeper connections with them and support them. This will ultimately lead to higher employee satisfaction which will significantly enhance their productivity.

Read more about 7 practices every global small business must follow.

President Biden's Buy American Act

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President Biden has signed a  legislation to tighten the "Buy American Act."

The act requires companies that accept federal contracts to be based fully in the U.S. and to source none of their supply chains internationally.  It also raises the burden of proof for businesses to argue that sourcing products domestically is too expensive, and most important, it establishes an oversight office.

Read more to learn what this means for you and your global small business.

Even With China's Currency Pressure, Export Growth Is Likely to Remain Strong

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A stronger global economy in 2021 would support demand for Chinese goods. If that continues to widen China’s trade surplus the yuan would hold its gains or even appreciate, “and inflation would be passed on to the rest of the world,” according to analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “The inflationary rebound in the next couple of years is likely to be sizeable.”

Even with the currency pressure, export growth is likely to remain strong alongside a vaccine rollout that should help to strengthen the world economy.

Read more about how China factories go into overdrive but exporters are not happy. 

The Little Engine That Could Save the Global Economy: Global Small Businesses

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According to the World Bank, SMEs globally represent about 90 percent of all businesses.

They also account for some 70 percent of global employment and 50 percent of global GDP, the International Labour Organization found. 

That means an increase in small-business failure rates would be crushing for many millions of people.

Learn more about the little engine that could save the global economy:  global small businesses.

Today in Global Small Business: Power of Ideas – Hope for 2021

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Reasons to have hope in 2021.
• Power of ideas – hope for 2021.
• Quote of the week: “There is now a light beginning to appear at the end of this long tunnel, with science having risen to the occasion and brought forth solutions that we almost dared not hope for. And, yet, here they are." – Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health
• New horizons, hugs, and hope in 2021.
• Innocence in 1953, dismay, hope in 2021.  Let's back success.
• The power of poetry, newly discovered, and providing hope thanks to Amanda Gorman.

Have Faith to See What Can Be

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"If we have faith to see what can be – unburdened by what has been – we move mountains."  – Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, as told to the congregation at Corinthian Baptist Church in Des Moines one fall day in 2019. 

Develop a Sustainable Global Growth Strategy

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A sustainable global growth strategy is about supporting customers in the countries where they do business. The advocacy gained from that support builds you up in that market.  Yet, many new and scaling companies take an all-or-nothing approach to global growth, believing there’s no point in expansion until you’re ready with the currency, the website translation and the team in place. 

Discover how a sustainable global growth strategy should be a part of your business plan right at the onset.  If you need help with your strategy, visit here. 

U.S. Makes History and Its Like Music to Our Ears

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Yesterday, January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made history:  Biden became the oldest USA president – 46th – in American history, while Harris will be the first Black woman and the first Asian American to hold the office of vice president.

Musicians from all genres greeted the Biden-Harris administration, with performances from Jennifer Lopez, Earth, Wind & Fire, John Legend and more. 

Read more because many of the greatest global musicians are now back in the fold.

Define Your New Overseas Market in Detail

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According to certified trainer in entrepreneurship Yaneek Page, the biggest mistake entrepreneurs tend to make with global expansion is to broadly define their goal as exporting to a new market. You have to be very specific about which market you want to enter and why.  Particularly the 'why'!

Read more tips about expanding to a new market.

Global Small Businesses Must Determine Whether Amazon is a Hero or Villain

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There are plusses and minuses to selling on Amazon.  Here's a minus.

The e-commerce giant may depend on its merchants in the aggregate, but individually they don’t have much power. Sellers say Amazon effectively punishes them if they’re found offering their items for lower prices on rival sites such as Walmart, dropping them lower in search rankings for instance.

Many feel Amazon also pushes them to pay for Fulfillment by Amazon and advertising. Even larger companies such as Tumi, a luxury bag maker, and PopSockets, which produces cellphone grips, have described Amazon as trying to control what they sell as well as how and where they sell it.

That said though, in a recent report (pdf), Amazon indicated over the course of 2019 and 2020 it invested more than $30 billion in logistics, tools, services, and employees to help small and medium-sized businesses. It also provides assistance such as technical support, loans, and credits for its cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services.

Read the entire article on big changes are afoot for global small businesses, especially when it comes to Amazon.

Today in Global Small Business: Honoring MLK

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Martin Luther King (MLK) – At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize (1964). When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
• MLK – The facts.
• Quote of the week: “The time is always right to do what is right." – Martin Luther King
• MLK – The speech.
• MLK – The little-known incident in 1956.
• MLK – A quarter million people and a dream.
• MLK – His family, including his strong and courageous mother.

Let Fear Not Rule

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." – Marie Curie

Global Power Booster: I'm Still Standing (Video)

Optimizing for Global Business Resiliency

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The past year has been full of change. But threaded underneath the tumult of the pandemic, many are seeing another kind of transformation in how companies must evolve supply chain management.

Read more to discover three (3) pressure points – investor, customer and consumer – for people are who interested in building a resilient global supply chain.

Complications: Trade Deficits, Currency Manipulation and the Strong Dollar

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Trade deficits, currency manipulation and the strong dollar are complicated economic forces that directly affect the future of American manufacturing. 

Here's a look at how they affect manufacturing and why we must do something around these issues, regardless of the politics. 

Startup in Shanghai Poised to Solve Cross-border Payment Problems and Boost International Trade

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XTransfer, based in Shanghai, China, aims to solve cross-border payment problems for over 100,000 of China’s smaller importers and exporters playing important roles in the national economy in spite of challenges posed by the pandemic and trade disputes.

XTransfer was founded in 2017 by several Alibaba employees and works with banks to set up a globally unified B2B (business to business) financial network and intelligent risk management system. 

Learn more here.

Today in Global Small Business: If T-Shirts Cost Another Nickel, So Be It

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Listen to Laurel Delaney's Global Trade Trends Report 2021 – recording available now.
• The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) announced that 53 technology startups will join global technology leaders in representing Japan at CES 2021, which will take place virtually from Jan. 11-14, 2021. 
• Quote of the week: “We want strong communities in the United States.  And if that means that T-shirts cost another nickel, then T-shirts will cost another nickel." – US Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer (12/17/20)
• How global small businesses can overcome barriers to manufacturing Industry 4.0 adoption.
• An order issued on 1/9/21 empowers Beijing to tell companies to ignore U.S. restrictions and allows them to sue other businesses if they comply.  Biden has his work count out for him.
• Trump's legacy, the shame.

Do Small Things With Great Love

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Do small things with great love." – Anonymous

Unlock Trade Finance

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Now, with survival on the line for many companies due to the global pandemic, the urgency to close the trade finance gap has grown.

While a slew of FinTechs have stepped onto the market in recent years in an effort to facilitate funding, the vast majority of trade finance is provided by a handful the world's largest financial institutions. It's a complex ecosystem, however, in which financial institutions must coordinate with insurers, institutional investors, and each other to not only originate trade finance, but mitigate risk and distribute assets.

Read more on how to optimize data to unlock trade finance.

USA Trump's Cling to Power is Over

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According to The Atlantic (1/5):  The president of the United States is out of options to fulfill his authoritarian dreams.

And the latest (1/6), USA President-elect Joe Biden will now govern with a Democratic Senate and a Democratic House. 

In case you missed other developments, here's more on the violent assault on the USA Capitol.

In 2021, Find New Life in Global Online Sales

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The global pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world economy, but many have found new life in global online sales. 

Platforms like Amazon have been proving for the last decade that brick and mortar need not be the only channel, and for many, it need not be a channel at all. The future of business for SME's lies with the adaptation of an online sales and marketing strategy, incorporating digital and social media to target market prospects.....just like Amazon.

Read about how to be more like Amazon. 

Join Laurel Delaney for Her Annual Global Trade Trends Report 2021

©2021 Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global.  All rights reserved.

Join Laurel Delaney LIVE on Wednesday, January 6th at 11AM CT when she presents her annual Global Trade Trends Report 2021.

She'll cover what the recovery will look like, the shift from physical to digital, disruptors in transport, supply-chain woes, Brexit, and more.

To learn more and to register free-of-charge, visit:

https://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org/2020/12/02/laurel-delaneys-global-trade-trends-report-2021/

This program is made possible thanks to the generous support from the sponsors of Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®:  Associated Bank, Greensfelder, APCO Worldwide, Union Pacific, FedEx and GlobalCare Clinical Trials.

Today in Global Small Business: Global Marketing Trends for 2021

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What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• Saving the global economy:  global small businesses.
• Small businesses are doing what they can to fight global poverty.
• Quote of the week: “There's no shortage of remarkable ideas, what's missing is the will to execute them." – Seth Godin
• How brands can overcome the logistics of going global.
• Access the Strategic Growth Forum 2020 (on demand) – keynotes and content.  While you are at it, explore these global marketing trends for 2021.
• Listen LIVE to Laurel Delaney's Global Trade Trends Report 2021 (free of charge) on 1/6 at 11AM CT.

Got Back Up Again

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"Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." – Nelson Mandela

Inspire You to Grow Global in 2021

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

May every day of the new year inspire you to grow global.  Best wishes for joy, peace, prosperity and good health in 2021.